


In Another Life

by Ralesninja



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Mention of blood, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:14:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25168282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ralesninja/pseuds/Ralesninja
Summary: What would’ve happened in another life if Ash had lived?
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my attempt at coping with the ending of banana fish over a year later! Lol, while I appreciate the ending as it was beautiful and tragic I always wonder what if??? Thank you so much for reading if you stumble upon this and thank you sooo much to @AgentCoop for looking at this for me and encouraging me to put it up!!!😖❤️

Ash looks out the window from his hospital bed. Sometimes he feels like the rain could wash away anything. If only that were true. Then he might be worthy of forgiveness.  
He’d done a lot of horrible things in his life. True, sometimes he had no other choice, but that didn’t make it okay. As much as he thought maybe he deserved to die, life always had its way of keeping him around.  
Ash wondered how long he’d been out. It was dark, there was a dull ache in his side…  
“Must be the drugs wearing off…”  
He looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table. 4:52am. Dr. Meredith’s assistant wouldn’t be back until 9:00am. He’d felt worse pain in his life, he could deal with this. Ash was grateful he had the sense to make his way to the old alleyway doctor when he came to his senses in the library, and he owed the man more than he could ever hope to repay.  
Nursing teenagers back to life wasn’t Meredith’s specialty but Ash didn’t have many options given his condition at the time. He'd almost wished he’d taken Blanca up on his offer to join him in the Caribbean. Maybe then he wouldn’t be in his current state. Maybe none of this would have happened.  
It did make one thing abundantly clear though. It had been a mistake to think he could escape his past, a fleeting dream that may never come to fruition. For a brief moment, that glimmer of hope that was Eiji Okumura shone so bright it was hard to look away.  
Now it was snuffed out.  
Reason took hold, Ash would only ever be a danger to him. As much as he wanted to believe things could change, they couldn’t. Not for Ash Lynx anyway.  
He wondered if Lao was dead or alive? How was Sing taking the news? Did he even know yet? Would Chinatown be up in arms? There was no way they would know it was him but… maybe…  
Ash grimaced. Whatever the case may be, he would need to lay low for a while, and he sure as hell couldn’t stay here. He scanned the room. Though it was dark, his eyes fell on a familiar trench coat folded over an armchair in the corner of the room. Careful not to dislodge his IV drip he slowly made his way across the room.  
“Shit!”  
It hurt a lot more when he tried to move. He looked down to see blood blooming against the crude bandaging.  
“Damnit…”  
He must’ve opened his wound. He grabbed the coat and quickly checked the pockets. No luck. It wasn’t there.  
Ash didn’t remember much from his stumble to the doctor’s place. Did he take the letter back with him? Did he leave it in the library? He really couldn’t catch a break. Maybe this was just another sign flashing brightly in front of him. There’s no hope for you. Just give up already.  
Just as he was heading back to the hospital bed he saw it. There on Dr. Meredith’s desk was a neatly folded piece of paper along with a one way ticket to…  
He blinked to make sure it wasn’t the darkness of the room or the light-headedness slowly clouding his mind, then steadied himself for a moment over the desk. Why couldn’t he start over? Every feeling, every emotion he’d had that day as he read the letter came rushing back. It wouldn’t be hard for him to get a fake ID. It wouldn’t be hard for him to move to a country where most likely no one would know who he was anyway. He could apply to a university and - NO. Stop it.  
The promise of something new was tempting, but could it really be that easy? Life had proven so far that no, it couldn’t. But couldn’t he at least try?  
First things first, he needed to patch his bandage to stop the bleeding and rest. The rest could wait until tomorrow. Maybe with a clear head he could decide what his next moves would be. Before he turned back to the bed he grabbed the letter and ticket. Reading it one more time wouldn’t hurt. Besides, dreaming a little longer of what could be felt nice and was harmless. He knew tomorrow his better judgement would take over. At least let him have this for now…


	2. Eiji

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eiji POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to AgentCoop for looking this over for me! Any feedback is much appreciated!

Eiji was nervous… Something was wrong. Everything in him was screaming”Get off this plane!” The seatbelt light came on, and for just a moment he thought about trying to get back up.   
Ibe leaned over and made sure he was fastened securely.   
“I can do that myself you know”, Eiji snapped. Why are you acting this way, he thought with a scowl. Ibe was watching him with concern and Eiji tried to give a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude”, he apologized.  
Ibe brushed it off.  
“No, I’m the one who should be sorry, I’ve been sheltering you this whole time. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this whole trip it’s that you can take care of yourself.”   
He was trying to cheer Eiji up. This was hard on both of them. They were not ready to leave, they both wanted to see this whole “banana fish” thing through to the end. But with expired visas and the situation going down the way it did it just wasn’t practical for them to stay any longer. Besides the situation was mostly concluded and their part in it would only further complicate things.  
That didn’t stop the feeling from getting stronger.  
“I have to go to the bathroom,”, Eiji said, moving to get up-  
“Just wait until we take off, it’ll only be a few more minutes. They’ve already turned the seatbelt light on,”, Ibe said.  
Eiji hesitated for a moment, something was telling him to go, but he sat back down.   
“Your right.” He felt something drop in the pit of his stomach.“I’m just not feeling good.”  
“It’s probably nerves, you were nervous on our flight out here too, remember?”  
“Oh yeah…” but this felt wrong.   
He pulled out his cell phone to call Ash. He wanted to make sure he got his letter. Max had set Ash up with a new phone line before they left. He figured Ash would try to pull a disappearing act on all of them.  
He held the phone to his hear, listening to the first ring–   
“Sir you have to turn off your phone off for a moment. The plane is about to take off.”  
“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t realize.” Eiji quickly set his phone down, but the sinking feeling didn’t go away. He’d hoped maybe Sing would’ve gotten the letter to Ash sooner or that he’d worked up the courage to call him instead of writing that letter. It was too late for “should have” now. Oh well, he would call as soon as he landed. He would tell him directly how he felt. He would tell him he wanted him to come to Japan. He wanted to show him the town where he grew up. Show him that he could have a peaceful life, a life without guns. Maybe he could introduce him to his family? Not his sister though, she would think he looked like an American movie star. Eiji chuckled at the thought. He knew if he gave it a chance Ash would like it in Japan. Maybe he could convince him to stay for a while. Before he realized the plane had taken off. It would be a long flight home.it was weird to think that 2 years after almost 2 years time he would be going back. He wasn’t sure if it felt like home anymore, at least not without Ash…   
When did he start thinking of home as not a place, but a person? Going from safe zone to safe zone, being temporarily moved across the country made him realize it wasn’t where they were that was important. At the end of the day, Eiji would be waiting, and Ash would always come back. How would he be able to go back to a normal life now? Would it be easy? Part of him thought it would, but he was almost afraid of that part. That part would mean forgetting everything that happened, all the friends he’d made, all the things they went through, Ash…  
“What’s wrong?”  
Eiji snapped back to the present. Ibe has a genuine look of concern on his face.   
“You look like you’re thinking about something.”  
Eiji collected himself, “It’s nothing.”  
“You sure? It’ll be awhile before we get home, you don’t want to talk about it?”  
“It’s nothing, really. Thank you for worrying about me.” He smiled to mask what he was feeling. Ibe stared at him for a moment as a last ditch effort to give him a chance to change his mind.   
“Okay, well I’m all ears if you need me.”  
“Thank you Ibe, really, for everything.”  
Eiji was sincere, it seemed to satisfy Ibe. Eiji looked at his watch, it had only been 27 minutes. It was going to be a long flight home.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I’ve been sitting on for a while and I just needed to get it out. I’m not sure if I will turn this into a multi chapter fic or have several short pieces. Hopefully this inspires me to write more.


End file.
